Colorado couple shares son's Navy SEAL life story

Two Front Range Gold Star parents are hoping that a new book about their son, a fallen Navy SEAL, inspires others to greatness.
The book, "Danny, The Virtues Within: What America Can Learn from Navy SEAL Danny Dietz," was released Jan. 13 by Winters Publishing Group.
Dietz's parents,...

Two Front Range Gold Star parents are hoping that a new book about their son, a fallen Navy SEAL, inspires others to greatness.

The book, "Danny, The Virtues Within: What America Can Learn from Navy SEAL Danny Dietz," was released Jan. 13 by Winters Publishing Group.

Dietz's parents, Littleton residents Dan Dietz and Cindy Dietz-Marsh, wrote the book with the help of author Jeremy Dunlap.

Dietz was one of three Navy SEALs killed in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005, when they were ambushed by al-Qaida.

Eight Navy SEALs and eight Green Berets were killed in a rescue attempt.

The lone survivor of the incident, Marcus Luttrell, wrote a book about the battle in 2007. That book inspired the movie "Lone Survivor" starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster. It debuted in theaters this month.

The movie, in which Dietz is played by actor Emile Hirsch, has created an increased interest in the SEAL, his parents say.

They hope their book, a collection of essays about virtues their son possessed such as courage and humility, feeds the public's curiosity and inspires others, especially young people, to adopt the qualities their son embodied.

After Luttrell's book was released, "people started questioning us," Cindy Marsh-Dietz said. "They wanted to know more about Danny, who he was before he got in that position, what he was like growing up.

"He's such an inspiration to the world, and they wanted to learn more."

The book is not a biography. Dietz's parents hope the nontraditional format will help readers "apply those virtues vs. just reading a book about him growing up until we turned him over to the military," Dietz-Marsh said.

"I always tell people this when I sign the book - I always sign 'never forget my son,'" she said.

"That's my biggest fear," she said. "I don't want anybody to forget who my son is, what he stood for and why he gave his life."